A HARDWARE shop which has long been a fixture in Ingatestone High Street turned 125 years old this week.
Since 1888, Patrick Green has helped to shape the homes, sports clubs, social clubs, shops and pubs of Essex.
When he started out, Mr Green had a horse and cart and traded as an ironmonger, timber merchant, haulier and builder, not to mention the village undertaker.
He started off at number 53 High Street and the building arm of the firm later passed to his son Tom.
Tom began to trade from a cottage next to the Green's family home, The Limes, before the shop moved to its current purpose built premises at number 49.
Neither The Limes nor the original shop are still standing.
Fortunately, Bernie Cranmer, 89, knows the history of the shop more than most.
He joined the business just before Christmas in 1937 at the age of 14.
"Patrick Green was a big fat man," Mr Cranmer recalled.
"He was a wonderful old man really.
"He used to come in and say 'Boy, I want you to do this'.
"He always called you boy; it was very much a 'you do what you're told' approach.
"He was a very kind man and he did a wonderful amount of work around the area.
"Mind you, with his line of work, every time there was a funeral you could rely he was going to be merrily drunk."
He added: "I remember writing letters for him to press for the A12 to be built because of what he called 'the stench' that traffic caused on the High Street.
"He kept on and on about it."
Mr Cranmer spent 55 years working at Patrick Green.
Following his marriage to Doris in 1953, the owners even helped him find a new home on the High Street – a home where the couple still live today.
Recalling the day he started work, he said: "It was very frightening for me as I was only 14 straight from school – I'd never been anywhere.
"I was on the books upstairs but they were often short of staff so I used to go down and help out in the shop.
"People came from all over to visit and get what they wanted.
"The owners treated me like a son and to work for them was very nice.
"I always wanted to go to work."
Today the shop continues to have a family-run feel.
Current owner and store manager Ian Miller has worked at the High Street store for more than 27 years, a feat nearly matched by colleagues Trevor Sewell and Ann McDermid with 25 and 26 years' service respectively.
"We're a proper, traditional hardware store," Mr Miller said.
"We've kept the same traditions and the same feel about the place –it's what customers like.
"But we are open to change.
"Last year we opened up a cook shop area at the front and with all the celebrity chefs and TV shows out there, it's been a real success."
We may live in an age of identikit chain stores situated in business parks on the edge of town, yet Mr Miller insists it makes no sense for shoppers in Ingatestone to go elsewhere.
"We're really grateful for the loyalty of our customers," he said.
"They come here first rather than drive off straight to B&Q, who are more expensive than us."
However, he added: "It's about getting that message across to the younger generation."
Alan Pudney, 71, who runs Ingatestone Pet Shop was born and raised in the village.
He said: "Some years ago someone came to me and told me he had an oil lamp which he needed a wick for.
"The next time I saw him he said 'I went in there and they got an old oily box down. It was full of wicks so I've got mine sorted.'
"It's got everything and if they haven't got it they can get it.
"It would be a body blow for the village if it ever closed."
Patrick Green himself was a keen cricket fan and was a member of Ingatestone & Fryerning Cricket Club.
Indeed, local historian Robert Fletcher recently stumbled across the club's first purchase from the store in 1889.
The account books show an entry on July 23, 1889, for oil and a spanner at a total cost of two shillings.
From humble beginnings, it's now 125 not out for Patrick Green.
